


The Meaning Behind Presents, Robots and the Dead

by SlashPrincess15 (slashprincess15)



Series: Parksborn Fanfiction [5]
Category: The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: Character Death, M/M, Parksborn Bigbang, minibang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 05:17:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2800946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashprincess15/pseuds/SlashPrincess15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parksborn Minibang. Peter wishes Gwen would stop telling them that everything Harry gives him is some grand romantic gift. Also he’d like the robots to please stop delaying his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Meaning Behind Presents, Robots and the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry into the Parksborn minibang hosted on tumblr and the first longer Parksborn fic I'm actually semi-happy about (hopefully the Christmas one is the second). 
> 
> The AMAZING artwork done by esmidsm that goes with this fic: http://esmidsm.tumblr.com/post/105605498006/the-meaning-behind-presents-robots-and-the-dead Seriously guys if you haven't already checked out their stuff you need to RIGHT NOW so many amazing Parksborn art as well as other Avengers pairings. Just go check out their blog and give them all the love they deserve! 
> 
> At least some of this is based on my relationship with my mother and her gift giving habits towards me and other bits conversations I have had with friends. Also writing for movie-verse because that’s the only verse I know that well at this moment. 
> 
> Working title to this was: Harry keeps sending Peter gifts and somehow they fall in love and maybe save the world. That seemed to go out the window half way through though and the fic seemed to end up more dealing with grief and pain and family and not a whole lot about Parksborn. Plus it got much more serious then I intended, wanted, could have predicted it to be. 
> 
> Because of timezones and such I don’t know 100% if I’m supposed to be posting this right now... but it’s the due date in America (only just) and I won’t be able to get back to the computer until late tomorrow after the due date has probably past in America, so I’m posting it now so it’s up and sorry if I did it wrong.

The first thing that could be called a gift Peter was given from Harry after their reconciliation was a brand new car as a late graduation gift. It wasn’t as if it was a top of the line sports car, Peter was sure even Harry would know that he would never accept a gift like that. But still it was nice and it was new and it wasn’t going to breakdown if it was driven more than 30 minutes like the one he would have probably brought if he ever got his licence.

Harry easily explained it away by stating it was to make up for the years of not buying Peter a birthday present and thanks for helping him to find a way to get in contact with Spiderman about the whole blood thing (not that they have a cure yet, but hey he was closer than he was before Peter managed to get the webbed hero to show up at his house).

Aunt May seems almost ashamed at her present in comparison, but Peter’s more grateful for hers then Harry’s. She gave him the last of the money he needed to buy the new camera he had his eyes on for so long. And anyway what’s the use of a car? It’s not like he can drive it at the moment or anything. He’d sell it if it wasn’t the first gift he’s gotten from Harry in years and he wasn’t about the break his habit of keeping gifts from his ex-friend that he had managed to maintain for so many years.

________

He spends most of the holidays trying to make as much money as he can; taking up the odd part-time job that he can actually find hiring in order to make some money on the side of his photos. He knows exactly how tough the job market is currently, but having the head of Oscorp as a character reference seems to do the job most of the time. He can never keep the jobs for long – his employers either get too annoyed or too suspicious about him constantly disappearing whenever Spiderman shows up, but still the extra cash is good. He tries to offer some of it to Aunt May who refuses every time, saying that he needs to save it up in case he finds he needs to put a deposit down on an apartment closer to his university campus. Peter doesn’t understand, sure the campus is further away than his highschool was but not that much further and it isn’t like the hates public transport _that_ much.

His first semester at university does eventually come around and Peter finds that he really does hate public transport _that_ much. Although part of that is because of the robots that keep attacking various forms of it so much that he finds most of his runs to university are spent fighting them off and he’s late to just about every single one of his morning classes.

_____________

“What don’t you just move in with me?” Harry asks one day during Peter’s vents to him about his troubles as they sit on the floor in one of the living rooms of the Osborn mansion eating some obscenely unhealthy spread for its jar much like they did when they were kids. He skips the part where he _fights_ the robots, merely blaming their presence for his constant lateness.

“I couldn’t do that,” Peter protests.

“Why not?”

“Because I’d never be able to afford the rent this placed deserved! And anyway, it would only really cut 5 minutes off my trip and with the robots attacking all the buses in the city that won’t do me much good.”

“So why don’t we both move out into an apartment together?” Harry asked as he finishes his spoonful of fat filled spread, tugging the jar back from Peter.

“I can’t do that to you.”

“Do what to me? Help me get away from this god-awful building that is filled with horrible memories of my childhood?”

“I couldn’t move you away from Oscorp. If you moved in with me so I was closer to my university campus then you’d move further away from your company. And anyway, the apartments I could afford would hardly be the kinds that would allow you the lifestyle you’re accustomed too.”

“Trust me Peter, there is probably nowhere in this city that would be more uncomfortable for me to live in then this building currently is. I can barely get any sleep at night and that isn’t just because of the ghost.”

“Ghost?” Peter asks and Harry sighs, putting down the jar.

“It’s nothing. I’m pretty sure the staff are just superstitious, and traumatised. I don’t think, actually, I know my father wasn’t particularly pleasant to be around before he died. I should probably put them all in therapy.”

“They’re seeing your father?”

“Apparently. Some of them see him walking down hallways, others just claim to hear him moving around his office like he always used to. I don’t know. I’d think they’re all going insane but…” he trails off.

“But what Harry?”

“I’ve seen him too. Like not actually seen him, obviously. But when I walk down some of the halls at night when I can’t sleep I see him out of the corner of my eye but when I turn he’s gone. I’ve heard the noises too. Some of them are probably just old building noises that my mind has turned into some reflection of my memory. But others… are just a bit too much Norman Osborn doing work for his company in his locked office.” Harry picks up the jar, gathering as much of the spread as he can on his spoon to shove into his mouth, “Tell me the truth Pete, I’m going insane aren’t I?”

“No Harry, you’re not. I use to think the same thing when my parents first… left. Still do some days.” Peter doesn’t tell Harry about the bunker he found, can’t until he can find some way to explain how the spider venom can only work on someone who has his father’s blood and yet Spiderman runs around the city using the benefit of it. Until then he’s found ways of feeding the research to Harry, making sure he can find out as much as he can about how to make the cure without finding out the exact specifics of it. Somehow that makes Peter feel better about the lie.

“Neither of them are coming back are they Pete?” Harry asks, handing the jar over to Peter.

“No, Harry,” Peter replies, taking the jar and refilling his spoon.

“We were both abandoned by them and then they both went and died,” Harry says bitterly, his face curling even with the sweet spread in his mouth.  

“Guess we just have to prove them wrong in doing it,” Peter says.

“And that’s why we should move out together. Get a fresh perspective on life and leave our old memories behind,” Harry says, though his face still betrays his hurt. 

“Sure Harry,” Peter says because he’s starting to learn how to pick his fights with Harry and this is one that isn’t worth fighting.

____________

Whether or not the apartment counted as a second present depended on who you asked. When Gwen found out about it she instantly classed it as a present, no matter what Peter did to try and convince her otherwise: Harry had refused to let his friend pay any part of the deposit. Peter claimed that it wasn’t: they choose the apartment together and Peter was going to pay half the rent, Harry just was so impatient to move out he’d rather pay the full deposit then wait until Peter gained enough money to pay his part. Aunt May just said it was nice that there was someone who was going to look out for Peter now that Gwen had left for England.

It took 3 months for it to come to light that Harry had blatantly lied to Peter’s face about how much the rent was and had been covering most of it himself. Peter was angry, but at the same time he understood Harry’s motivations. Anyway, it’s not like he’s being the most honest person either. Gwen just laughs when he tells her about it over their weekly Skype call, and Peter can’t help but smile.

Life settles down a bit after that. Peter successfully feeds all of the information he can to Harry without revealing his identity, and a cure doesn’t seem to be that far off being made so Harry seems less restless. He also seems more willing to go outside and actually experience life instead of spending all his hours either working for the company or on his cure. He also appears to sleep more, which Peter counts as a blessing because it’s hard to sneak out late at night to go fight crime when the person you are sharing an apartment with could possibly be pacing just about anywhere in the building at all hours of the night.

The robots seem to have stopped attacking public transport too; which is good, because Peter likes to be able to visit his Aunt without having to allow four hours for what should be not even an hour long trip. However they appear to have changed targets to education institutes around the city which means there is still a decent chance he’ll be late to his classes because he has to go stop them from terrorizing other students. At least Spiderman’s popularity with the university’s student body is better than his with the general public; he job is made a little easier when he isn’t being reported to the police every time he tries to save someone.

Harry even starts dating again, or at least the closest thing Harry seems to do to dating which is better described as having a semi-monogamous sex partner. The media is eating it up, and the gossip columns seem more interested in whom Harry Osborn is taking to bed then they are with whether or not Spiderman is still disliked or not. The more serious journalistic newspapers haven’t forgotten to continue to remind people to hate Spiderman so Peter doesn’t even loose much money on his pictures. Peter soon gets used to random women being in the apartment and becomes even more conscious in his efforts to keep his costume hidden.

One of the girls does find it one day and Peter had to explain away how he and his girlfriend like to role-play in bed, the girl laughs and makes some joke about having dated guys like that and then tells Peter a bit too much about what Harry’s like in bed then he really wanted to know. Harry has broken up with her by the end of the week and by the end of the month has a new one.

___________

No matter what Gwen says the flowers are totally not a gift. It was just that Harry stormed into the apartment one day holding them; glaring at the wall as if it had done something to personally offend him with what is probably the most expensive bouquet of flowers Peter has ever seen hanging from his hand.

“How’d the date go?” Peter asks before his brain had enough time to process the image in front of him and how bad of an idea asking that question probably is.

“Remind me to never, ever, agree to dinner with rich heiresses ever again,” Harry says, collapsing into the couch next to where Peter is sitting.

“But then you wouldn’t be able to ever go on a date again,” Peter replies, again without thinking. Harry stares at him from the corner of his eye as if he has gone insane but a few seconds later he breaks out into a laugh so Peter thinks everything is okay again.

“Well I guess I’m already screwed then, but lesson for you – don’t ever date rich heiresses Pete, we’re way too demanding and complicated,” Harry jokes back, sinking further in the couch. “Shame though, the flowers are nice and now I have no-one to give them too.”

“You could always give them to me,” Peter suggests earning him a raised eyebrow.

“Didn’t know you felt that way about me Pete,” Harry jokes and Peter stutters in response.

“No, I didn’t mean like that. But… they’re nice, might make my room smell a bit better then eau de college male,” Peter manages to get out in response and Harry shrugs passing the flowers over.

“Whatever, just make sure Gwen sees them, I want at least want one pretty girl to appreciate them. Not that you don’t count of course Pete,” and with a pat to Peter’s head he wanders off towards his bedroom.

__________

“Harry gave you WHAT?” Gwen demands when they Skyped that night.

“Flowers. But he didn’t really give them to me Gwen, just… didn’t want to throw them out.”

“Why didn’t he find some other female he knows to give them to?”

“I don’t really think he knows that many females outside the one’s he’s dating. I mean, there is Felicia, but I don’t think she’s the kind to want to take flowers like these from her boss, inappropriate connotations and all. I said I could use them to try and keep away the college male smell and he gave them to me,” Peter explains, but Gwen seems far from convinced.

“He’s a college-age male, why didn’t he use them to make his room smell nice?”

“First, thanks to his responsibilities in Oscorp he isn’t in college. Second, I highly doubt his room smells like college male, more likely professional dry cleaning and expensive soap. What?”

“You sure you don’t have a crush on the Osborn heir Peter?” Gwen asks, voice mimicking that of every reporter who has ever interviewed any female even remotely associated with Harry.

“What-!? No, Gwen, no. We’re just friends!”

“You sure? Because this is the third expensive gift he’s given you Peter and the story from every single one of his ex’s as to why they broke up has always been ‘it’s like he’s thinking about someone else’ maybe you’re the someone else.”

“No, if it’s anyone it’s probably his father,” Gwen made a face on other side of the video chat, “Not like that! He keeps thinking he sees and hears him. That’s half the reason he moved in with me because he kept thinking he saw him in the halls of his house, staff did too. Now people at Oscorp are claiming to see him or hear him talking behind high security doors. Most of the cleaners are spooked and Felicia is having a hard enough time keeping them on, Harry’s started not sleeping again too…”

“How’s the cure going along?” Gwen asks and Peter shrugs.

“Good, bad, I don’t know. He’s stopped talking about it, and he’s gotten enough blood from Spiderman as well so he’s stopped calling on him. I’d say he’s trying to lock me out again Gwen but-“

“But he does things like gives you flowers, and hasn’t asked you to move out yet or forced you to start paying your full amount of rent to force you out. I hate to say it but you might need to do some snooping of your own if you want to find out what’s bothering him so much.”

“I know, but I _can’t_. I don’t have the time, between college and the robots that have been attacking I barely have enough time to sleep.”

“Have you figured out the source of them yet?”

“No. I think their tech originates from Oscorp, but then again so does most supervillain tech in this town. Harry really needs to invest in better security for his company. Other than that though? The person using them doesn’t seem to have a job, they’ll attack any time of day or night and are near impossible to predict. I think I’m just going to have to wait and see if their creator shows their face anytime soon.”

Gwen gives him a sympathetic look before her eyes dart over to the corner of her screen with the time, “Sorry Peter, I have to go to class. Talk to you later tonight okay?”

“Sure, I got an assignment to do anyway,” Peter replies waving her off.

“Remember to tell Harry that we’ve broken up if you haven’t already. Next time we talk you could have a new boyfriend!” Gwen teases and before Peter has a chance to respond the Skype call has ended and he’s alone in his room with his thoughts and the flowers.

_________

“Gwen thinks we’re in love with each other and are both refusing to do anything about it,” Peter says the next time he sees Harry.

“Seriously?” Harry sputters, luckily having finished swallowing the last mouthful of cereal he had eaten before Peter had spoken up.

“Yeah, she thinks you purposely gave the flowers to me as some romantic gesture,” Peter says and Harry lets out a laugh.

“Well you never know, from what I’ve seen that girl of yours is clever Pete. Would keep a good hold of her if I was you.”

“Actually… we’ve broken up,” Peter says and Harry winces.

“Sorry man. You two seemed pretty in love last I saw,” Harry moves to put his bowl in the sink.

“It’s fine, it was the distance… we couldn’t handle it. It’s not a done deal though, if she comes back during the break and we find the feelings still there we might give it another go. But for now… yeah, we’re not together.”

“You’ll find another girl Pete, you’re too nice and good looking not to,” Harry says, grabbing his jacket to leave for Oscorp.

“According to Gwen that girl’s you,” Peter jokes and Harry grins.

“Well, I’d be the prettiest thing you could attract,” Harry jokes back, giving Peter a wave and then leaving to go to work. Peter just sighs before noticing the phone sitting on the table opposite him. Harry would realise and be back for it soon but it might finally give Peter a chance of understanding what is going on in his friend’s life.

__________

The phone reveals a little. There are messages from those working on the cure stating how it’s in the final testing phases. Which is good, it hurts Peter to see Harry still shrinking from the sickness even if he’s recovered from the majority of the mental trauma caused by his father’s death. However that appears to be the only positive messages on it. The rest all seem to be bringing bad news. Some from Felicia stating how there is literally no way to keep the current cleaning crew working, and that they’re going to have to pay them out pretty heftily to stop them from going to the news with stories of the ghost apparently haunting Oscorp’s halls. Then there are the messages from the board, threatening Harry that if he doesn’t get the company back in order it’ll crash in the stocks and how disappointing it would be to his Father’s legacy for that to happen.  Overall Peter gets a slightly better image of Harry’s life before the he returns home to retrieve his phone, but it isn’t a positive one. He still feels as if he’s missing some information.

A week later a new villain attacks. The Green Goblin he calls himself and he seems to have picked Spiderman as his target more than actually getting his hands on wealth or fame. The robots are his of course, and Peter spends the rest of the week silently panicking that someone has figured out his identity and what that would mean for those around him. The Goblin doesn’t show any signs of knowing it though. He just seems to know exactly what to do in order to get Spiderman to come out to fight and a large array of various weapons that seem to all be designed with the common goal of killing said Spiderman.

Peter appears to be right about him not having a job though, as he ends up spending 5 nights out of 7 tracking down and trying to stop the Goblin’s latest antics. Soon he joins Harry in walking around the apartment like a sleep deprived zombie and it isn’t strange for them to both fall asleep halfway through breakfast only to be woken by Harry’s phone going off from various people wondering where he is.

__________

Things stay like that pretty consistently until the holidays come around and Gwen arrives back into town.

Peter tries desperately to convince her to distance herself from Spiderman. Not Peter, she can still hang out with him (and Harry) whenever she wants, but _please_ stop showing up and helping Spiderman in fights. It’s just too dangerous now that the Green Goblin has a vendetta against him.

She doesn’t listen.

The Green Goblin quickly figures out that she means something to Spiderman and starts targeting her in order to draw his true target out. Peter always comes to her rescue, but she still won’t listen to his begging, pleading requests for her to stop coming to his aid.

It soon leads to her death.

___ ______

People come all the way over from England to attend her funeral. Peter stands at the back of the congregation, trying not to feel jealous over the fact they got to spend the majority of the last year of her life with her. He has no right to be: it was his fault she died. Anyway, they weren’t even that close anymore – they’d broken up, apparently a long distance relationship was just too much work.

Harry attends too. At first Peter thinks it’s as support from him, but the blonde seems as honestly distraught about Gwen’s death as most people attending do. Peter wonders if the two had talked much after meeting, maybe they too were having weekly Skype conversations and Peter just never knew about them. He starts to realise just how little he knew about Gwen’s relationships with other people, and just how many people she was important too.

Somehow he feels all the more responsible for her death.

He’s the last person to leave the graveyard and by that time it’s well and truly night. Harry hung around longer than most, and even at one point goes and talks to the headstone. Peter would have tried to listen in if he hadn’t been so beside himself. He somehow manages to stumble home and into his bed, but spends most of the night staring at his computer screen as if expecting it to wake up with a message from her on Skype.

It never comes.

____________

Peter wakes the next day to an empty apartment. At first he thinks Harry had just left early for work but then the Osborn heir doesn’t return home in the afternoon. Or the next day, or the day after that. It takes a month before Peter next sees Harry and even then his friend refuses to meet his eyes for another two.

Peter spends most of the holiday trying his hardest to find out who is behind the mask of the Green Goblin.  Doing so turns out to be a lot harder than one would first expect. Whoever is behind the Goblin mask is thorough and leaves behind no clues of who he is except that his tech originated from Oscorp. It has gone through so many alterations by this point that Peter isn’t even sure those who made the original tech would recognise it as their own.

As much as he doesn’t want to has no choice but to follow the only lead he has.

He’s probably lucky that it’s Harry who finds him wandering around in the backrooms of Oscorp and not one of the trigger-happy guards.

_________

 Peter lets himself be silently led to Harry’s offence and all it takes is the simple question of what is he doing here for it _all_ to come spilling out. He’ll later blame it on the grief but it’s more his tiredness of having to constantly lie to everyone that has him telling Harry about everything: his father, Spiderman, Gwen’s death, even the Green Goblin’s obsession with him and use of Oscorp tech. 

Peter expects to be yelled at; expects to lose his friend forever. Instead he gets a sigh, a forced smile and a, “I haven’t been completely honest with you either Pete.”

Harry’s reveal doesn’t take as long as Peter’s. He knew someone was stealing Oscorp tech but kept it quiet because he didn’t want an investigation to reveal all the resources he had been temporarily refocusing on finding a cure for his illness instead of making the company money.  “But that doesn’t matter now Pete. We managed to make the cure, administered it a month ago, I’m yet to have an adverse reaction it. The technology is being redirected back to its original task and I’m going to find out exactly who has been stealing from my company.”

Peter finds out first.

_________

It turns out if you’re old, rich and angry enough even medical death won’t stop you. At least it won’t if you’re Norman Osborn.

Peter stands on the roof in front of the unmasked Green Goblin frozen in place.

“Surprised?” Norman asks, possessing a grin that Peter had never seen on the man during his life. His skin was a mass of lumpy green, the result of the illness he was still suffering from, and his eyes hold a madness to them that Peter had seen on Harry before he gave him the connection to Spiderman.

“You… you’re dead…” Peter stutters, taking a careful step back.

“Yes I am, turns out it was the only way to survive,” Norman replies standing up. “Go on; ask the question you really want to know.”

Peter has to swallow before he can ask. “What about your life? Your company? … Harry?”

 “All necessary sacrifices,” Norman picks up his mask from where it had been dropped by Peter. Putting it on he continued, “I answered your question now I get to ask one. Are you going to tell my son about this? I’ve heard that the two of you were starting to get close. I mean he wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice everything like me in order to survive. You were his only hope at getting the cure. Isn’t that right, Peter?”

Before Peter had a chance to react one of the Goblin’s gas bombs went off and without the protection the Goblin mask provided Peter coughed his way into unconsciousness. He wakes up an hour later on the building alone.

_________

He manages to stumble back home, his new knowledge running through his head. Even as he walks through the door he still doesn’t know if he should share it with Harry or not.

He doesn’t have to deal with it right away as the Osborn heir isn’t home. Instead on the kitchen counter a small respirator is left with a note simply saying ‘for the gas.’ Peter thinks how Gwen would have considered it another gift from Harry, and would have teased him for it no matter his reasonable explanation _._ He pushes the thought from his mind as soon as he gains it – it still hurts too much to think of her.

Peter instead settles himself down at the table, pulling his mask out of the bag he had stashed it in and started trying to figure out how to add the respirator into it.

_________

When Harry eventually returns home Peter is still working on the mask.

“Tough day at the office?” Harry tries to joke but the look Peter gives him makes his face return to the sober state it’s in so much as of late. “You okay Pete?”

“Goblin knows who I am,” Peter replies, and he can feel the tears prick his eyes.

“What?” Harry asks, shakily making his way over to the table to sit opposite Peter, “How?”

“I’m the only one his cure would work on,” Peter says and Harry is back on his feet within an instant.

“No, don’t lie to me Peter,” Harry says, “He’s dead, I was there when they buried him.”

“Harry, I didn’t want to believe if at first-“ Peter starts to explain but stops when he sees the fear and in his friends eyes.

“Don’t tell me that he faked his own death just to get away from me. Please Peter… he can’t be,” Harry’s eyes are wide and panicking, glancing around the room as if trying to find an escape from the conversation.

“I don’t think it was to get away from anything specifically. From what I can tell the suits the only thing keeping him… going. He couldn’t exactly run a company looking the way he does,” Peter explains and Harry backs himself into a wall only to collapse against it.

“So all the times I thought I saw or heard him…?”

“He’s probably been using Oscorp and the house as his base of operations. I don’t think he had a secret underground railway station as a second lab,” Peter says and Harry lets out the most pathetic sobbing sound.

“I thought I was going _insane_ Peter. I thought… I was becoming him and now I find out that all those time it was actually him refusing to just die… I can’t…”

“I know Harry,” Peter says walking over to sit down next to Harry against the wall, trying to be some form of physical comfort.

Harry lets out a number of shaky breaths, before finding his voice again. “So… if we disable the suit we can stop him…”

“I think so, but Harry that will kill him.”

“I know.”

“He’s still your father.”

Harry shakes his head. “Not anymore Peter. Not after what he’s done… he’s gone too far this time.”

Peter thinks over the things Norman Osborn has done as the Green Goblin and wonder’s which one pushed him over the edge in Harry’s mind to something that must be stopped. He doesn’t voice his question though; instead he lets Harry lean against him and wraps his arm around the blonde’s shoulder as they start to plan how exactly they are going to kill Norman Osborn.

He tries not to think about how comfortable the position is, and how nice it feels to have Harry this close to him. He’s not sure if those thoughts are better or worse than the ones of how he and his best friend are going to commit patricide.

___________

Over the next few weeks the two of them start to plan out ways to disable the Green Goblin suit. Harry seems to take to it much easier then Peter who just can’t get over the fact that they are explicitly planning how to kill Norman Osborn.

“Just think about it as how you would disable a suit like that,” Harry says during one of Peter’s many ‘I can’t do this’ phases, “Don’t think about what happens after you disable it. If he hasn’t thought of a backup in case the suit fails then it’s his problem to deal with. Not ours.”

“Even so it’d still be your father I caused the death of…”

“Trust me, that man does not deserve the title Father.”

“What did he do to gain so much of your hatred Harry?”

“He sent me away Pete, he saw what was happening and instead of dealing with the problem he sent me away as if it’d magically fix it.”

“What did he see was happening Harry?”

“That his son had a crush on his best friend. The chance of it turning into anything was tiny but oh no, even that was too high for Norman Osborn so he sent me as far away as he could.”

“You had a crush on me?” Peter manages to stop Harry from continuing his rant with the quiet statement.

“Well, yeah. You were the only kid I really had any exposure too,” Harry says with a shrug.

“There were other kids at school.”

“Yeah, but I was always told I was better than them. Why would I want to be with a person lesser then me? I saw you outside of school with your father, and my father seemed to have some manor of respect for him so that meant you were worthy of respect too. You were a cute kid Pete, I don’t understand why more kids didn’t end up fancying you,” Harry explains easily.

“So what you’re saying that your father sent you to an all-boys boarding school so far away that there was no way he could not keep a good eye on you to stop you from misbehaving because he thought you were gay?” Peter asks and Harry laughs.

“Hey, the man has to be lacking in some area. He’s managed to fake his own death yet continue to use his company’s resources. Stopping his son from ending up gay however? Not so much his strong suit.”

“So are you?” Peter asks before he can stop himself.

“Sorry?” Harry asks back, his eyebrow raised.

“Sorry, you don’t have to answer that. It’s just… you he wasn’t good at stopping you for becoming gay and I just wondered… Sorry.”

“Dude, chill. It’s fine. Just didn’t expect the question is all. In answer: I don’t really know. I mean I like women and all but I never… you know what it doesn’t matter,” Harry shakes his head, dispelling whatever chain of thought he was on.

“Never what?” Peter curses his damned inability to think before he speaks.

“Never got over my crush on you,” Harry says as he looks Peter dead in the eye, showing no lie behind his words. However it’s only a few seconds later and he’s letting out a bitter laugh. “You shouldn’t date me anyway Pete, I’m a mess of problems.”

“I dress up in spandex to help the police who hate me and fight Supervillains as a hobby. I hardly think I’m in a better position then you,” Peter replies and he manages to get a smile out of the blonde.

“What you saying Pete? You think it’s a good idea we date?”

“I’m not saying it’s a good idea, I’ve never really been one for good ideas. I’m just saying I’d be willing to give it a shot,” Peter says and Harry just laughs.

“You’re insane, you know that right?”

“Yes, I’ve been told it by enough people now that I believe I am aware,” Peter replies grinning and Harry just laughs. “So is that a yes.”

“Yes Peter, if you’re that mad enough to think you can handle dating me then I’m not going to be the one to tell you not to.”

________

That’s all it takes for Peter Parker to end up in all the magazines next to Spiderman. He sometimes gets approached by people on campus between classes to ask him about his relationship or suddenly act like they’re his best friend. He tries to be polite but it’s not uncommon for him to find himself using his powers in his everyday life just to get some peace and quiet. He’s pretty sure Harry finds it funny but doesn’t get a chance to really talk to him about it as most of their time spent together seems to be trying to find some way to disable the Goblin suit.

Norman doesn’t let up either, if anything he increases his attack pattern. By the time Peter and Harry have finally found a way to make the suit turn off (apparently it can’t handle some frequencies of sound blasted into the side of the mask and when hit with them for long enough will shut down) Peter is grateful just for the idea of a full night’s sleep. Harry just seems glad that it will be all done with soon and they both just want to be able to actually find what their new normal will be.

It takes them a month to make a device that’s able to produce a the frequency at a sustained enough rate to disable the suit long enough for the police to actually arrive, arrest, and have Norman out of it before the suit reboots, and another month to make a device to attach it to the mask of the Goblin suit in a way that won’t be easily pulled off.

Peter eventually gets the thing attached during one fight and he sits next to the Green Goblin while waiting for the police to arrive. As Norman screams, threatens, and sputters next to him he tries not to think of the fate that awaits the man once he’s arrested and taken out of his life-sustaining suit. He also avoids thoughts of Harry’s childhood with the man and the time he missed with his friend-now-boyfriend because of him.

When the cops do eventually arrive he’s exhausted. He barely stays long enough to make sure they understand exactly what they need to do in order to prevent the man from escaping before they even get him to jail. He arrives home with the morning news already talking about how the old head of Oscorp isn’t dead and brainstorming what that means for the company.

Harry’s watching the news, but he doesn’t look too distraught about it so Peter figures he can deal with any repercussions in the morning. He takes the few more steps into his room (he and Harry have yet to reach the ‘all spaces are shared spaces’ point in their relationship) and crashes into his bed, content to just sleep everything off. He doesn’t even care when he manages to sleep all through the day and only wakes up the next morning to the smells he has learnt to associate with Harry’s all-nighters. At least it’s over now, and the two of them can figure out what to do next together.

__________

“Sorry it’s been so long since my last visit,” Peter says as he sits down beside a now familiar gravestone, an expensive bouquet of flowers in his hand. “Things just got hectic between getting Norman in jail and exams, I hope you don’t mind.”

He takes a breath to steady himself before continuing, “Flowers are from Harry by the way. He’s always better at picking them then me. I don’t know; guess it’s the rich-boy upbringing. He says they mean remembrance or something, I don’t really know but I’m sure you do so I hope you like them. “

He rests the flowers against the headstone. There are a couple of other bouquets already resting there, some clearly from her family while other friends who miss her just as much as he did. “He’s getting better too. I can actually get him to sleep for at least 6 hours most nights, and considering I’m lucky to get that sometimes I think it’s pretty good that I can get him to do it. Oscorp’s recovering too, which I think you’d be happy to hear seeing as it’s your old employer and all. There’s still a bit of distrust because it’s old head faked his death, became a homicidal supervillain, and somehow managed to break out of jail, but Harry’s separated himself from his father enough that most people seem to trust the company as long as he’s in charge.”

“I’ll find him again Gwen, and this time make sure he stays in jail… or… I don’t know. Harry thinks I should just kill him but I can’t, even after everything he’s done. Does that make me weak? I’m pretty sure you would say it doesn’t, that it makes me strong, but I don’t know any more Gwen.”

Peter pauses and tries to find his words again, “I miss you, still. Every day I wish I could see you just one more time. Wish I had of caught you right, but I can’t go back so I guess I got to deal with it.”

“Don’t worry too much about me though. I swear I’ll figure it all out and find my place in the world. I just… need some time.” He stands up, glancing around the graveyard to all the other markers of people who left the world.

“I guess I better go. Harry’s holding some press release for the company’s latest tech so there’s bound to be some supervillain who has already started using it that wants to use that moment to reveal himself to the world. I just wanted to see you again, and make sure you got the flowers before they started to wilt, even a little. I guess I’ll see you later then,” he finishes lamely before making his way out of the graveyard and towards Oscorp. 

He won’t even bother showing up as Peter Parker, Harry’s supportive boyfriend; he’ll just get changed, sit on a rooftop somewhere and wait until Spiderman is needed. Somehow that is what their normal is looking like it’ll be, and for some reason neither of them seem to mind.


End file.
